Back
by nonpiu
Summary: Gretel is back in the ER and Kerry makes some Italian pasta.


Summary: Gretel is back in the ER and Kerry makes some Italian pasta.  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Spoiler: This is completely spoiler-free! All you need to know is that Dave is not around anymore.  
  
A/N: Just few things you might wanna know:  
  
I don't live in the US and haven't seen season 9 yet.  
  
English isn't my first language. Go easy on me but feel free to point out any mistake! I'm also looking for a beta-reader so if you wanna step in just let me know!  
  
I'm no doctor and I have no medical knowledge whatsoever. I tried to put a little medicine in this, though, so forgive my many mistakes.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Back  
  
By Elisa  
  
  
  
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"  
  
The kid that was being treated in Trauma 2 yelled in pain. Blood was everywhere on his body and on the gown of the doctors that were working on him. He threaded about, moved and struggled fiercely, causing a great deal of trouble to the ones who were trying to help him.  
  
"Damn! I can't find a vein if he doesn't stay still!" shouted Lydia.  
  
"Malik!" Susan yelled popping her head outside the doors " We need some muscles in here!"  
  
"Give him ten more Haldol!" ordered Carter.  
  
" I would if I could get an IV or a needle in him!" Lydia snapped back.  
  
"Don't move, young man" Haleh suggested.  
  
"Restraints!" called Susan.  
  
"I'm on it!" said Carter jumping on the gurney to restraint the recalcitrant kid. He was about to tie him up when the kid kicked him between his legs sending him on the other side of Trauma 2.  
  
Carter landed heavily on his back against a crash cart.  
  
"For Christ's sake!" he moaned clutching his crotch and rolling on the floor in pain.  
  
" Are you Ok, Carter?" asked Susan stepping aside to check him, a worried look on her face.  
  
" I guess so." he muttered with his eyes still closed.  
  
Susan lent him a hand, hr grabbed it and tried to get back on his feet but a flash of pain passed through his body.  
  
"Carter, what was that?" Susan asked him.  
  
Carter, helped by Susan, rested against a cabinet on the side of the room.  
  
Kerry stepped in to take over.  
  
" What happened Carter?"  
  
"The kid kicked me in the balls and I landed on my back. Nothing serious, it hurts a lot, though."  
  
"Do you want some Tylenol for the pain?" Susan offered,  
  
" No, it's better not. Thanks, anyway. I'll just have to rest and wait until it goes away on its own."  
  
"Yeah, you'd better take it easy." Kerry said " You'd better stick to paperwork for the rest of your shift."  
  
"But Kerry."  
  
"No buts, Carter. That's an order. Go."  
  
With some trouble Carter got up, threw his gown and gloves away and exited the room.  
  
  
  
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Carter was sitting by the admin desk. He tried to stifle a yawn and looked at his watch. He had still four more hours to go before the end of his shift. He was dying of boredom doing charts.  
  
In that very moment Kerry passed him by and threw a chart in the chart rack.  
  
"Kerry, my back doesn't hurt anymore, can I start seeing patients again?" he pleaded.  
  
"I said no Carter. Are you deaf or what? Besides if you want to get some higher position in the ER in the future you're gonna have to spend a lot more time doing paperwork so you'd better get used to is soon."  
  
"At least I could do sutures!" he offered.  
  
"Thanks, but the students and interns have got it covered. If you really want you could bring some urine samples to the lab, though."  
  
" No, thanks, I'm not that desperate yet."  
  
"As you prefer, Carter. I'll leave you to your paperwork, then."  
  
Elizabeth Corday dashed by them.  
  
"Where are you going Elizabeth?" Carter asked, amused. The surgeon in fact seemed a lot eager to reach her destination. Her eyes was shining like a child looking at his presents under the Christmas tree.  
  
"Why are you in such a hurry?"  
  
" I've just been paged by the OR. Romano is being brought in for renal calculi and I wanna make sure I'm the one who gets to operate on him, although it's gonna be quite a fight. There's a lot of people who'd like to have the pleasure to open him up."  
  
" You sure don't want to miss it, uh?" Carter laughed "It reminds me of that time when I got to perform an appendicectomy on Benton. It really made my day."  
  
The sound of sirens approaching the ambulance bay could be heard.  
  
The doors of the ER opened and Robert "Rocket" Romano was wheeled in.  
  
" Hi Robert" Kerry greeted him " I heard you've thrown a couple of stones in your kidneys, haven't you?"  
  
" You heard right Kerry. It hurts like a bitch. Can't wait to get rid of them."  
  
"I know Robert."  
  
"You must be having a lot of fun watching me squirm on a gurney. Not even in your best dream have you thought of this, uh?"  
  
" I must admit it's quite funny, Robert." Kerry chuckled " But wait until you see the face of your colleagues up in the OR. I think there's some kind of fight going on up there to decide who gets to cut you up."  
  
" I bet there is. I think Lizzie's gonna win. She's dying to see me naked. I was thinking about having it done on local anesthesia to check what they do, though. God knows what they might do with me unconscious on an operating table."  
  
"As the old saying goes, Robert, you get what you deserve." Kerry laughed.  
  
" I need you to do me a favor, Kerry. Since I'm gonna be here twelve hours after the op for post-op follow-ups and I don't want to leave Gretel alone, could I bring her here and you find someone to look after her, please?"  
  
"Who's Gretel, Robert?"  
  
"She's my dog."  
  
" I understand. You're lucky. Dr. Carter here has been injured on the line of duty and I'm sure he wouldn't mind looking after your dog for the rest of his shift. I'd do it myself but I'm off in half an hour."  
  
"What?" Carter exclaimed.  
  
" You were complaining you didn't know what to do, Carter. Now I found you something to do, so shut up."  
  
"Great, now I'm a dog-sitter".  
  
  
  
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Kerry sighed with relief as she hang her coat on her hall stand. She switched on the lights in her living room and turned on her stereo. A Grace Jones CD started to play. She lit up an incense candle.  
  
After that she went to her kitchen to try and get her dinner ready. She wanted to make herself a good pasta. She mixed grated cheese with ricotta and began layering it and meat sauce between noodles in a deep dish. Then she stretched herself to reach a bottle on the top shelf. She shouldn't have let put them up so damn high. It was a lot easier when John was still around. She hadn't still rented the basement after he had moved out. She really didn't know why.  
  
She eventually reached the bottle and opened it to discover she had run out of marjoram.  
  
"Shit!" she exclaimed. She checked her watch and hoped she could get to the store before it closed down. You really couldn't make a good ricotta pasta without marjoram.  
  
She grabbed her coat and crutch and ran out of her house.  
  
When she turned around the corner she saw the small grocery shop owner rolling down the shutter.  
  
"Wait a moment, sir!" she yelled as she crossed the street running.  
  
Kerry was too busy gesturing to the man not to close the shop that she didn't see the truck turning into the road. She only heard the loud screeching of the tires as the driver hit the brakes.  
  
She felt a sharp pain to the side right before everything went black.  
  
  
  
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" Abby, where is the Compazine?" Malik asked to the head nurse.  
  
"Try the bottom drawer in the cabinet in the Suture room." Abby replied quietly, putting some emesis basins away.  
  
In that moment they heard a weird noise. It was something in between a wailing and a howling, it started slowly but it reached a piercing shrill before lowering trembling to a halt.  
  
Abby raised her eyes, scared.  
  
"For God's sake what was that?"  
  
" Is Regina back ? " Malik volunteered " Maybe she's somewhere hallucinating."  
  
" I don't know. But that didn't sound very human to me."  
  
"It's Romano's dog." Lydia enlightened them " Carter is keeping an eye on him in Exam 2. I advise you not to go near it. It gets worse when you're close."  
  
"Don't worry, I won't ." Abby said shrugging " It gives me the creeps."  
  
"Poor carter, I don't envy." Malik added.  
  
"Neither do I."  
  
Abby went about her business but couldn't help going near Exam 2, hoping to catch a glimpse of Carter or of the dog.  
  
Carter got out of the room in that very moment. He looked worn out, quiffs of cotton sticking out of his ears.  
  
Abby chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.  
  
The effect was spectacular. Carter jumped in the air and started spinning around like a tornado. His face was ghostly pale and he trembled violently.  
  
" How is your dog-sitting doing?"  
  
" God help me, Abby. I made the terrible mistake of giving that damn dog some Haldol because he was jumping all around the room breaking all our equipment. It knocked him off but it started this horrible cry. I tried everything but nothing. And this damn cotton doesn't help a little bit."  
  
"Come on, let's take a look at this nightmare" she said opening the door.  
  
"Wait a sec" he said stopping her " Are you sure you wanna do it. Abandon all hope , you who enter!"  
  
Abby chuckled " It can't be so bad as Dante's Inferno!"  
  
They entered the room together.  
  
Abby kneeled next to the dog to examine her. She was in good shape, but, except for a slight reflex in her eye, there was no sign of her coming around. And there were the non-stop piercing wailings, at regular intervals.  
  
"The Haldol needs just a bit of time to wear off, that's all." Abby stated " Has she been like this the all time?"  
  
" Exactly like this. Not a tad different. And don't waste your sympathy for her, the wailing witch. She's happy like a baby, she doesn't even realize what's going on. But me? My nerves are gonna flip if I listen to it a little longer. Just a few more minutes and you're gonna have to give me some Haldol too."  
  
He ran a trembling hand through his hair and spasm contracted his cheek.  
  
" I'm sorry Carter." Abby said as she closed the door behind her.  
  
She stopped for a brief moment to listen. Gretel was still howling.  
  
  
  
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The ambulance doors of Northwestern ER slammed open as the paramedics wheeled the patient in.  
  
The young doctor approached them.  
  
" What's the bullet?"  
  
" MVA accident victim, truck versus pedestrian. She's unconscious, broken femur, BP 90 over 60. Intubated on the field. No ID on her."  
  
The doctor stepped closer to examine her eyes "Thanks guys, we take it from here. Bring her in Trauma 3."  
  
He stopped suddenly. "Damn! I know her!"  
  
"Who is she?" asked another doctor.  
  
"Kerry Weaver, chief of Emergency medicine at County General. I used to work there."  
  
"On my count. One, two, three."  
  
Kerry was slowly starting to regain consciousness and it was evident that she was in a lot of pain.  
  
" Giver 50 mg of Demerol"  
  
"We need a surgeon in here!"  
  
"Did you call me, Dave?" a woman wearing surgical scrubs entered the room.  
  
She quickly assessed the patient.  
  
" Prep for a peritoneal lavage!  
  
A nurse obliged and passed a tampon over her belly. As the surgeon inserted a tube in her stomach, the nurse took Kerry's hand and started explaining the procedure " My name is Claire. The doctor has put a tube in your chest and now they're pumping some water into it. If blood comes out it means you have internal injuries."  
  
"She runs an ER, Claire, she knows perfectly well what a peritoneal lavage is."  
  
"I need a catheter!" shouted the surgeon.  
  
"I got it" Claire shouted back.  
  
Knowing the patient could understand what was going on, the surgeon merely lifted the bag that was quickly filling with blood.  
  
"Get a saline and a tube ready!" Dave ordered.  
  
"Come on, people, let's take her to the OR!"  
  
As they wheeled her away Dave squeezed Kerry's hand.  
  
"Don't worry, we're gonna take a good care of you."  
  
  
  
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When Kerry woke up she was in a foreign hospital bed. She pressed the button on the bed side hoping a nurse would soon show up.  
  
A doctor came instead.  
  
Dr. Dave Malucci greeted with one of his mischievous grin.  
  
" The sleeping beauty has finally woken up."  
  
"Very funny, Malucci. What are you doing here?"  
  
"Actually I should be asking that. This is my working place, after all. Do you remember anything, chief?"  
  
"Yeah, I was in a car accident. Paramedics brought me here and I remember having an heart attack when I saw you."  
  
"Ah, ah. Scared that I was gonna OD you on some drug, uh?"  
  
" Maybe. The peritoneal lavage was positive. Where was the blood coming from?"  
  
"Your spleen, and a nicked artery. The vascular team had to repair the damage."  
  
A nurse came up and Dave signed nonchalantly. Then another doctor approached him.  
  
"Dr. Dave, I need you take a look at this patient of mine, I've ruled out meningitis but I'm afraid."  
  
"I'll be with you in a second, Charles."  
  
"You're very popular here, Malucci" stated Kerry.  
  
"It's hard not to be when you're chief resident."  
  
"Whoa chief resident." Kerry exclaimed surprised.  
  
" You didn't think I was gonna make it, uh? On the other hand you always said that Northwestern has an incredibly incompetent staff. Anyway, we couldn't contact any member of your family. Do you want me to call someone? You can't go home on your home with that." He gestured towards the cast on her good leg.  
  
"No. I'll call a cab. But you'd better call County. I was supposed to be on two hours ago."  
  
" Right away chief. "  
  
"Thanks, Dave. When are you gonna discharge me?"  
  
" As soon as the vascular surgeon gives the ok. But before I'd like to have someone from psych to come down and take a look at you."  
  
"A psych consult? Are you out of your mind, Malucci?"  
  
"No, actually I think there's never been a better idea." And with a smile and a blink he stepped away.  
  
"Malucci! Come back here, now!"  
  
"You're not my boss anymore, I don't have to follow your orders now!"  
  
  
  
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Carter rushed to the admit desk of Northwestern ER where a sullen desk clerk was doing crosswords. Some things are the same everywhere, he thought.  
  
"Excuse me, I'm looking for Kerry Weaver. Where is she?"  
  
"Weaver? Don't know anyone by that name?" the clerk popped a chewing gum bubble" Do you know a four letter word for possessions?"  
  
"Miss I asked you a question. She was in a car accident."  
  
" Is she a petite red-head?"  
  
Carter nodded.  
  
"The chief resident treated her. She's in Exam 2."  
  
"Where exactly would that be?"  
  
"Down the hallway, second door on the left."  
  
"Carter rushed down the aisle and bumped into someone. A couple of urine sample spilled on his shirt and on the scrub top of whoever he had hit.  
  
"I'm incredibly sorry, but don't you know you're supposed to screw the caps on?"  
  
"I didn't have the time, you should pay more.Carter! You're as clumsy as always!"  
  
"Dave! What are you doing here?"  
  
"I'm chief resident. And you're to see Kerry, aren't you?"  
  
"Yeah. How is she?"  
  
" Not bad. Just a broken femur. They had take out her spleen and repair an artery, though."  
  
"Can I see her?"  
  
"In a few. A doctor is checking on her at the moment. Why don't we grab a cup of coffee and catch up in the meantime? Let me go get a new scrub top first."  
  
  
  
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"Claire, where's that patient Dave wanted me to check on?"  
  
"Exam 2"  
  
"Thanks, Claire."  
  
The doctor opened the door.  
  
"Alright, good morning, I'm Dr. Legaspi."  
  
"Kim?"  
  
"Kerry?"  
  
"What are you doing here? I thought you moved to LA."  
  
"I did. But I got back a few months ago. I missed the good weather too much."  
  
" Why didn't you give me a call?"  
  
" I didn't want to get involved with someone who's still hiding in a closet. Try to understand me."  
  
"Actually I'm not hiding anymore. I told Romano I was a lesbian when he threatened to fire you."  
  
"You did? I'm afraid it didn't help much, though."  
  
"Yeah, but I had the pleasure of leaving Rocket speechless for once."  
  
" Oh man, I miss all the good stuff, don't I?"  
  
"I miss you, Kim."  
  
"Kerry I."  
  
In that very moment Malucci stuck his head into the room.  
  
"Sorry to interrupt, girls. You can thank me later, chief. And you have visits, too."  
  
Carter appeared behind him.  
  
"Hi Kerry, how are you? Hi Dr. Legaspi. It's good to see you again."  
  
"Hi Carter."  
  
"Carter, what are you doing here?"  
  
"They told us you were in an accident. People were worried about you at the hospital so I decided to come here and check on you."  
  
"Can't believe they were worried, they are throwing a party, that's more likely."  
  
"Ok, I just needed an excuse to get away from Romano's devilish dog. So here I am."  
  
"Romano has a dog?"  
  
"A pain in the ass dog, for that matter. So when are they discharging you, Kerry?"  
  
"As soon as the vascular surgeon gives the thumbs up."  
  
Kim's pager went off. She took her chart and smiled apologetically.  
  
"I gotta go now, my psychotic killer must have woken up from his nap. I'll call you Kerry!"  
  
"Don't forget!"  
  
A few seconds later another doctor came in.  
  
"Bob?" asked Carter surprised.  
  
"Carter?"  
  
"Do you happen to know one of our best vascular surgeons, Dr. Gisela Bobswenhiswky? It took me almost a week to get that!"  
  
"Jerry probably still couldn't, that's why Doug Ross renamed her Bob."  
  
"He helped me with my English for my board exams. It was a long time ago."  
  
"Yeah, almost nine years ago."  
  
"Well, Ms. Weaver, your femoral artery is fine. You can be released. Bye, Carter, say hello to everyone at County for me."  
  
"Bye, Bob. I'll take you home, Kerry."  
  
"Everything is fine, then. That's good. I'm getting off right now." Dave said cheerfully.  
  
A nurse interrupted them.  
  
"Dr. Dave. I'm sorry to tell you that your bike was smashed by an ambulance. The medic put it in reverse instead of gear for mistake."  
  
"Damn! It was new!"  
  
"I'll give you a ride, Dave" offered Carter.  
  
The trio approached Carter's jeep.  
  
"Carter, why don't you stay for dinner?" asked Kerry "I wanna thank you somehow."  
  
"Sure, you're a great cook, Kerry."  
  
"And I was gonna make my famous ricotta pasta, I know you love it."  
  
"Are you saying you can actually cook an Italian ricotta pasta?" interjected Dave.  
  
"As a matter of fact I do. Ask Carter."  
  
"Nah, I don't believe you. You gotta be Italian to do it properly. Do you use marjoram? And cow meat sauce?"  
  
" I do. Why don't you eat with us too so you can judge for yourself?"  
  
"If someone had told me Weaver would have asked me to dinner I would have called a psych consul for them."  
  
  
  
Fine  
  
A/N: What do you guys think? Is it good or bad? I just wanna let you know that I made up Bob's real name. Please, please, please review! 


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